I'm Still Here
by AMelloMelody
Summary: I should introduce myself. My name is Matt and I will be your guide through the complicated twists and turns of my life. This isn't a tale of incredible action or heart-warming love. It's just the story of two boys. How they met, how they became friends and so much more than that and where their lives took them. So sit back, relax and read on if you're still interested.
1. Prologue

I'm Still Here

Prologue

Weellll... This is awkward. I've been staring at the blank page for quite some time now and I'm starting to feel kinda uncomfortable. As the page probably is too. I mean, these past few hours have consisted of some _intense_ glaring. And I'm not sorry.

How the fuck are you supposed to start this kind of shit off anyway? I mean, I'm not going to write "Dear Diary" for the pure and obvious reason that I'm not an eight year old girl. And this is _not_ a diary. It's a journal. Much manlier. If it even counts as a journal exactly? I mean, I suppose I'm not writing this while it's happening... It's more of an... autobiography? It's just "autobiography" makes it sound that this is being written to be published... or that people are actually going to give a crap about the chapters I have yet to write. Seriously, nobody cares. This is for me. No one else.

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Matt. Once, it was Mail Jeevas, but that was a long time ago. I'm Matt now and I will be your guide through the complicated twists and turns of my life. I'm not going to have some kind of incredible writing flair and it won't be a fantastic reading experience. It will just be me. Whatever "me" is. I could be seen as many different things. Depends on who you're asking for a description. Some will say I'm a nerd. Others will say I'm nice enough. I could be a geek, a gamer, an anti-social prick, a bit of a ditz, a lazy prat, a skilled hacker, a genius or a good friend. I guess that the most important part of me for this story is that I am one of L's Successors. That's how this all came to happen. My life, I mean. Before I became a successor, there was no substance to my life except for terror and pain.

By no means am I the smartest successor, the most talented or the most interesting. So, why am I writing this then? You may ask. Quite simply, I'm bored and the batteries on my gameboy are dead. I don't have a reason to offer you pertaining as to why you should spend your precious time reading my story. But hey, don't ask me, you're the one still reading this. I don't know. It's your choice, okay? Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Well, there's no point in procrastinating. On with the show. So, sit back, relax, grab a bucket of popcorn and enjoy. Or don't. You probably won't. But whatever.

* * *

**A.N. Okay. Prologue done. Just _ more chapters to go! =) I have no idea how many chapters this will have. It'll figure itself out eventually I guess. This will be my first attempt at seriously writing a FanFiction longer than a oneshot so bear with me.**

**This is going to follow Matt and Mello from Matt's entrance to Wammy's through to... I don't know. I'll figure it out. Hopefully with the help of some reviewers? I don't know what kind of category this will be if I'm honest. I think it'll work out as being quite light-hearted and hopefully humourous but maybe with some angsty moments, 'cause let's face it, they'll be teenagers. No angst would be unrealistic. ;-)**

**I really hope that you enjoy it. If you ever have any questions/suggestions/criticisms, don't hesitate to let me know in a review or a PM. The same goes for if you have any particular bits you like or things you want to see more of. =)**

**Thanks for giving this a chance!**


	2. Chapter One

I'm Still Here

Chapter One

Okay, so I guess that my life truly started upon my entrance to Wammy's House. That's the orphanage I grew up in by the way. It was set up by Quillish Wammy because he had a shitload of money and wanted an L version 2 in case the real L died. I doubt that I have to go into much detail in the describing of L. Everyone has heard of L, the world famous detective, known for his incredible deductive reasoning skills and ability to solve any case. So, basically, Wammy figured that he could raise little genii to become the next L.

Just like every child ever to attend Wammy's, I couldn't have a family waiting for me on the outside. It would be unacceptable, the idea that I would have a family to visit, breaking me away from the orphanage for long periods of time while I missed valuable pieces of my education or to tell all about my schooling. Nobody outside of Wammy's knows what goes on inside. For these reasons, only if a gifted child was orphaned would they be allowed entrance.

I was nine years old when it happened. The incident that left me orphaned and alone in the world. So what could I do then? With no one to care for me and nowhere to go? It would have been wonderful if Wammy had been watching me and waiting for an event like this. Then, there would have been no in-between phase. I could have had him there waiting for me instantly, instead of wasting my time in the atrocious care home system. The word "care" should most definitely _not_ be used in that title. The last thing that anybody did in that horrible place was _care_.

I had to share a room with four other boys, three of which were disgusting excuses for human beings. They played tricks on me, putting insects in my bed, cutting up pieces of my clothing, stealing my gameboy. They had no morals. I could have excused the behaviour _slightly_ on account of the fact that they hadn't had parents to raise them with these morals, and I did, but after going to Wammy's and realising that people could grow up just fine without parents, I stopped thinking that.

They never got their hands on my goggles though. My goggles have always been like a comfort blanket, I suppose. I received them as a gift from my mother on my last birthday before her death. With lenses that were too big at the time and an adjustable strap at the back, nothing (not even growth) could stop me from wearing them. I prefer it when others can't see my eyes. It makes me feel less exposed, less vulnerable. And it doesn't hurt that the sharp colours of the world are softened with a warm orange tint. Nothing seems so harsh somehow.

They promised that I would settle in at the care home, but I didn't. I hated it there. Everybody was rude and dismissive, the food was terrible and most importantly, they wouldn't just leave me be with my Gameboy.

* * *

Almost immediately, I started at a new school nearby and got into the same routine that I had been in at my old school. Get to school, ignore my work, play Gameboy all day, leave school. It was simple and I loved it. But, unfortunately, this school was not like my old one. They called in my social worker, Ana, and told her of the situation. This lead to my Gameboy being confiscated and I was told that I would only get it back when I could increase my school grades or at least put some effort in.

I was furious to say the least. In my nine years of life at that point, that was the first time that I lived up to the "fiery redhead" reputation. I argued and shouted and stubbornly refused to do anything but it got me nowhere. I stopped arguing but I was still angry. The nerve! Who were they to take away my personal property? So I channelled my fury into the ridiculously easy school work in the hope that I could get my games back as quickly as possible.

My teacher began to notice that I finished the work faster than anybody else and I never got a question wrong so, intrigued, she began to make my tasks steadily more and more difficult until I was working at a level six years ahead of me.

The school were astounded and called in Ana yet again. This time was different though. I wasn't being scolded and nobody was angry with me. I was treated very delicately and they began to apologise profusely, saying that _of course_ I hadn't been neglecting my work to be difficult, I had just been bored because the work was too easy. That wasn't true though. It was neither of those reasons, I was just lazy. I didn't want to work and I would rather play games. Simple.

Only a month or so later, in the summer, the Year Sixes were due to do their SAT exams. Despite the fact that I was only just nine years old that February, it was decided that if I could do Year Six work, I could try the SAT exams. I think it was more of an experiment than anything else.

That was how Wammy found me. He told me that he had obtained the national SAT results, in search of any possible L successors and there I was, at the top of the list with a hundred percent, whereas the next score down was eighty-seven percent. Upon researching me a bit, he found that I was definitely a potential Wammy's House resident. I was young but intelligent to an extent above most even in older years and yet there I was, waiting in a care home, parentless.

* * *

I don't know exactly how the rest happened though. What did Wammy tell the people at the care home? That he was adopting me? That he was just taking me to his school? I didn't pay attention at the time so I'm not sure and I'll probably never know but it doesn't really matter.

Wammy turned up as soon as he could. I was already in England so it was only the journey from Winchester to Kettering, just a few hours away. I remember the day that he arrived. I was sat on the floor underneath a desk in the living room, button-mashing on my Gameboy, when there was a knock at the door. I took no notice, people didn't often visit but I was sure that it didn't concern me so I remained in my comfortable position, upside down with my feet resting on the underside of the desk, playing The Legend of Zelda.

"Mail," Ana called me, bursting into the room about an hour later. I was startled and whacked my head on the side of the desk. Rubbing my injured head, I paused my game and nervously peered out of my hiding spot. An older, friendly-looking man was standing behind Ana and scanning the room, looking for me.

The other children were all staring at this man by now and he carefully observed the people in the room before his eyes landed on me. Noticing my position underneath the desk, unusual goggles and the Gameboy clutched in my hand, he chuckled quietly and smiled.

"I'll bet anything that that's Mail under the desk there," he said to Ana and she glanced over to me.

"Yes, it is," Ana replied, shaking her head at me disapprovingly.

"Excellent," came the pleased response, and the man strode over to me.

I hurriedly got onto my feet, standing on shaky legs. I was clueless what he wanted me for.

"Hello, young man. I'm Quillish Wammy," Wammy introduced himself, holding out a hand for me to shake. I obliged but said nothing.

"Not much of a talker? That's fine," Wammy smiled, still friendly as he dropped my hand and turned back to Ana. We were lead back to the office where there was paperwork to be filled out. I have no idea what was going on in that room or even how long we were in there. I just remember that it was long enough to start a new game on The Legend of Zelda - Link To The Past and reach the end of the Desert Palace before they were finished.

Before I knew it, my small suitcase had been packed up with the few belongings I had and I was being whisked away from the wretched place in a shiny car.

* * *

"Where are we going?" I eventually asked hesitantly.

"I'm taking you to live in my orphanage. It's more like a boarding school though," Wammy answered.

"What's it like there?" I wondered aloud and suddenly Wammy launched into a long explanation. He described the orphanage in great detail, explaining my new purpose to be a detective. To succeed L. I was told stories of the things children got up to there and it all sounded wonderful. I knew that it wouldn't be true though. It wasn't possible.

"We're almost there!" Wammy announced and I began to prepare myself for the disappointment that was sure to follow. I was expecting a dump sprayed with grafitti, mud instead of the luscious green playing ground that had been discussed and most of all, cruel and viscious children. As we rounded the corner, I stared in awe at the enormous building, appearing every bit as good as Wammy said it would be.

The architecture was grand and beautiful, making the building appear to be some kind of cathedral rather than an orphanage. I became slightly nervous at this point that everybody else would be terribly posh and I wouldn't fit in at all. I already figured that I might be a bit different, but I would stand out greatly as the messy and anti-social child I was if every other student was prim and polite.

Wammy parked the car and lead me through the enormous double doors, into the entrance hall. I had never felt so small in my life as I did just standing in that one room. The ceiling was very high above me with a huge crystal chandelier hanging down. There were only three directions to go in from here; up the staircase, into the door hidden behind the stairs or through the gold arch that showed a long hallway.

"Wow," I breathed, staring up at the ceiling and watching natural light streaming in the windows through my orange-tinted goggles.

"Yes, it's definitely something, isn't it?" Wammy chuckled.

I turned to him to respond, but I was speechless, "Just... Wow," I finally uttered.

"We just have to get some things done in my office, and then you can join your new classmates at dinner," Wammy smiled and I obediently followed him through the door behind the stairwell.

Once inside, Wammy gestured for me to take a seat on the opposite side of his desk.

"Would you like a drink?" Wammy offered.

"Yes please," I answered hesitantly, feeling overwhelmed.

Wammy served me water and I drank thirstily. Upon putting it down again, I noticed that I had left smudges all over the clear crystal glass and I couldn't help but feel like I was the scruffiest thing in a two mile radius. If the rest of the orphanage was as squeaky clean as this, I was screwed.

"There are some small matters to discuss," Wammy began, sitting behind his desk and logging onto his computer.

"What matters?" I asked.

"Well, Mail cannot be your name anymore," he replied.

"Why not?" I asked.

"As a detective, you will make as many enemies as you will friends. Some people will be angry with you for your work, and your identity being known is the difference between life and death. If you keep your true name, you will be too easy to track," Wammy explained.

"Okay," I answered simply, since my name didn't exactly mean anything to me, "So what's my new name?"

"You can choose," Wammy smiled.

"I can't think of any names," I hesitated.

Wammy began to type on his computer and turned the screen to face me a moment later. A list of names had appeared on the internet browser and I scrolled down carefully, reading through every name and testing the way it sounded.

When I came across the name I wanted, I didn't even have to think about it to know.

"Matt," I decided, turning the screen back to Wammy.

"Excellent choice. Matt," Wammy said, typing quickly, "You don't need a middle name or a surname. Now there is just a quick test for you to do. There's no pressure, it's just to see whereabouts you are on our leaderboard. This is the test that the other students did this month. It's multiple choice, but it won't always be."

I was handed a stack of papers, which was relatively thin compared to what I had expected, and a pen.

"Take your time."

With that, I began the test. Some of the questions were based on topics that I hadn't encountered previously so I gave an educated guess, logically deciding what the answer would be. It took me forty-five minutes to complete and as soon as I handed it in, it was put to the side. I wished that he would just mark it so that it was over and done with. The moment that I was sure was yet to come, in which I was bottom of the leaderboard and everybody realised that I wasn't supposed to be in a school for genii.

Nonetheless, I continued to stare straight forwards and I said nothing about my insecurities.

"Okay, just a few bits of information for you, now. In this folder is a map, a copy of your schedule and other pieces of information that you might like to know. You will get ten pounds of pocket money every month, just like the other students, until you turn ten, at which point you will have the opportunity to earn more with certain assignments that we will discuss closer to the time but you cannot do any work in criminal cases until you are sixteen," Wammy informed me.

"Thank you," I smiled politely.

"Well, you can join your new classmates in the dinner hall now."

"Do I have to?"

"What's wrong?"

Wammy seemed genuinely concerned. "I won't fit in," I confessed in a whisper.

Wammy smiled widely, "I assure you that you will be fine. Nobody fits in here."

This statement completely confused me and my facial expression must have told him that because he soon elaborated.

"As soon as I saw you, I knew that you were the genius in that little orphanage. Do you want to know how? Because I've noticed that the smart ones are always very unique. They have a special way of doing things and are seen as unusual by people who don't understand. It's different here since everybody is unique and they all thrive upon it."

"I don't know..."

"Here, I tell you what. There's a list of your classmates in that folder. Get to know them, and when you notice their little quirk, write it down next to their name. I promise you that in no time, that paper will be full and you'll know that you belong here."

"Thank you Mr. Wammy," I smiled slightly and stood up.

"If you come back here after dinner, I'll show you to your room," Wammy offered.

"Could I go straight to my room now, please? I'm not really hungry and I'm kinda tired," I answered although I wasn't. Just because I felt a bit better about my classmates did not mean that I wanted to walk into a dinner hall alone and awkwardly place myself on a table with strangers.

"That's okay. I understand. It's been a long day. Just go straight up the stairs, go down the hallway to your right and then turn left. Keep going until you reach room number eight. You will be sharing with another boy your age called Mello," Wammy handed me a key over the desk and I thanked him before grasping the handle of my suitcase, ready to go.

It's sort of funny how that was the first time I heard the name "Mello" and it meant nothing to me, but now, no name means more to me than that one.

"It has been wonderful meeting you, Matt. I hope that you'll be very happy here," Wammy smiled and held the door open for me.

"Thank you," I said again as I rushed out of the door.

* * *

It took me about ten minutes to climb the white marble staircase, since I had to lift the suitcase up each step one at a time. It was the first time I found myself glad that I barely owned anything. I couldn't have done it with heavier luggage.

I followed Wammy's directions easily and soon found myself in front of door number eight. I slotted the key into the lock and pushed the door open. I stood for a moment to survey my surroundings.

The room was spotless. There wasn't a single book out of place, or a stray t-shirt lying on the floor anywhere. It seemed impossible that somebody actually lived in that room already. There was a definite sense of division between my side of the room and Mello's. The room was pretty much symmetrical and I thought it was like having two different rooms but without a wall in the middle. Two beds were in the centre of the back wall, separated by a pair of bedside cabinets. Each side of the room had a desk, a chair, a bookshelf, an armchair and a chest of drawers.

I guessed which side of the room was mine and threw myself down on the bed furthest away from the door. I whipped out my Gameboy and happily lost myself in the game I had been deprived of for many hours now.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open causing it to slam against the wall.

"Yeah? Well screw you!" shouted a figure in the doorway that was still facing down the hall, obviously not talking to me. It had startled me but I now settled back down slightly, watching carefully.

The figure stormed into the room and slammed the door closed. Without acknowledging my presence, the boy strode up to his desk, pulled out a bar of chocolate and snapped off a piece in his mouth.

"Who are you?" He demanded, turning to me. He had quite long blonde hair and was wearing all black except for a red and white rosary around his neck.

"Matt," I answered simply, "Your new roommate."

"Well, 'Matt my new roommate' here are the ground rules. Don't touch me, don't touch my stuff, don't come near me and keep the damned room clean," Mello instructed forcefully.

I didn't respond, I just turned back to my game and continued. Mello didn't seem like the type to need a reply in order to be sure that I would obey. I wouldn't, of course, but he would figure that out eventually. He pulled a textbook from his bookshelf and sat down at his desk, writing furiously in a notebook.

An hour passed and we remained in silence. Eventually, the battery on my gameboy died and I hadn't saved for a while. I decided that I couldn't be bothered to re-do everything I'd done at the moment and resolved that I might as well go to bed.

I pulled pyjamas out of my suitcase and changed in the bathroom leading on from the bedroom.

"Goodnight," I said.

Mello mumbled something incoherent and dismissive. I assumed that it was also a goodnight and climbed into bed, switching off my lamp.

I took the opportunity of being in bed to reflect on the day. It had been eventful, but my first interaction with a classmate could have gone better. Nonetheless, anything was better than that damned orphanage. I'd just have to see how things went from there. Without removing my goggles, I closed my eyes and stared into the blackness behind my eyelids until I was asleep.

* * *

**A.N. Wow. That took aaages. Anyway, I hope that it was okay for a first chapter. Kinda uneventful, but that should fix itself pretty soon. Please let me know what you thought, 'cause reviews make my day. =)**


	3. Chapter Two

I'm Still Here

Chapter Two

The following morning I wasn't exactly woken in the best way. Mello stood above me and repeated my name over and over again. Just as I started to think that he must be a very patient person, he ripped the pillow out from underneath my head and hit me with it four times before it exploded. He tossed its empty shell against the wall where it sank to the floor to lie amongst the piles of feathers.

"Matt!" Mello shouted.

I groaned and sat up, "What do you want?"

"For you to get your lazy arse out of bed!"

"What happened to the rules?" I demanded.

Mello looked at me blankly and I sighed.

""Don't touch me, don't touch my stuff, don't come near me and keep the damned room clean", I quoted, "I assumed that that went both ways, in which case you have definitely violated all four of them in the last two minutes."

"Don't be stupid. That only applies to you," Mello scowled.

"I'm sorry, I guess I just assumed that you were reasonable. My mistake," I climbed out of bed and walked straight past Mello to my suitcase.

"Don't push your luck," Mello glared, "I have been instructed to look after you since we share the same timetable, which is the only reason I'm bothering with this."

"Yeah, yeah," I said dismissively and walked into the bathroom to dress.

When I came back out ten minutes later, Mello was leaning up aginst the wall and reading a textbook again.

"Ready yet?" He asked impatiently.

I nodded and followed Mello out of the room and down the main stairs.

"Did Wammy show you around at all?" He asked.

"Erm... No. He gave me a map, but I left that upstairs," I answered.

"Did you not think that you would need it on your first day in a brand new place that just so happens to be enormous?" Mello raised his eyebrows at me.

"I forgot it," I shrugged.

Mello rolled his eyes, "Fine."

I followed him underneath the gold arch in the entrance hall and into the hallway.

"Okay. If you go all the way to the end and turn right, you will be in the Dinner Hall. They serve breakfast from seven a.m. until eight forty-five a.m. every morning. Lunch is at one-thirty and dinner is at seven p.m. Lessons begin at nine a.m." Mello explained.

We continued on to the end of the hallway and as I moved to turn right, Mello turned left.

"Wait! What about breakfast?" I said.

"We missed it. You see, _one of us_ overslept," Mello replied, not stopping his confident stride through the corridor.

I sighed and stared wistfully at the closed doors of the Dinner Hall for a moment before running to catch up with Mello.

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"Our first lesson is Maths. I'm pretty sure that Wammy gave you a Timetable, but being the bright spark you are, I'm guessing that you left it in the room with your map," Mello replied, not taking his eyes off of a single point ahead of him, as if nothing and nobody around him mattered in the slightest. He seemed very sure of himself.

"You were the one rushing me out of the room!" I argued.

Mello rolled his eyes but said nothing. We walked for a little longer and then turned into a classroom.

Mello threw himself down in a chair at the front of the classroom and I settled down beside him. Only when he began to unpack his supplies did I realise how unprepared I was for my lessons. I couldn't even pretend that I was working without a pen or paper.

I looked around me and noticed that everybody had matching exercise books. I assumed that I would be given one by the teacher, which quickly put to rest my worry of paper. Now just to find a pen.

I awkwardly sat for a moment, trying to figure out how to ask for one without sounding stupid, but Mello came to the rescue by wordlessly putting a pen down in front of me.

"Thank you," I smiled, but he didn't say anything.

The teacher, an elderly man, strode into the classroom and placed a laptop down on the desk.

"Good morning, class," He said and parked himself in a chair. He took the register quickly and paused when he reached the end.

"Matt," he read out from the screen.

"Here, Sir," I answered to my name as every student before me had done and the teacher quickly turned his attention to me.

"Well class, it appears we have a new student. A pleasure to meet you, Matt. My name is Mr. Nicholson."

This was the moment I had dreaded. When I was pointed out to other students as somebody new, somebody unfamiliar. I awkwardly stared down at my desk, muttering a greeting in response to Mr. Nicholson, as the rest of the class stared at me. I could hear whispering, but not loud enough to make out words. I could feel my face heating up slightly and I brought my arms back to cross defensively over my chest.

I was relieved when Mr. Nicholson swiftly continued on with the lesson, only bringing attention to me again to provide me with an orange exercise book.

The lesson wasn't hard. Quadratic equations were boring but of only moderate difficulty. About half way through the lesson, I put my pen down and stretched out a bit in my chair.

"So what's after Maths?" I asked Mello who was leant over his book, holding back his long hair with one hand to keep it out of his way.

"Shut up, I'm working," He muttered.

"And I'm bored," I sighed.

"This isn't supposed to keep you entertained, it's supposed to educate you," Mello hissed. He turned away from me, switching so that he was writing with his left hand instead and holding back his hair with his right. This made a curtain of his blonde hair fall between us.

Mello clearly took his lessons seriously. Defeated, I half-heartedly proceeded with scrawling down meaningless numbers on the page.

English followed Maths and this teacher was considerably worse than the last. She made me stand up and introduce myself. By 'introduce myself' I mean 'stand awkwardly at the front of the room with a bright red face, awkwardly stuttering over the words "Hi. Erm... I'm Matt."'

* * *

An hour later, we emerged from the room for break-time. Now that Mello was out of lesson, he was fully responsive and led me to the lounge where students could go before, between and after classes.

The lounge was a reasonably large room that seemed to be much less formal than the rest of the building. Instead of elegant architecture and ornaments in rich colours, it contained several plushy sofas and armchairs, a fireplace and a section of desks to work at.

"The most important thing about this room," Mello began, "Is that board at the back." He gestured to a large corkboard that was nailed to the centre of the back wall, "That's where our results from the monthly exams are posted on the first of every month. It's the leaderboard that says how close we are to the top. To being the best and L's successor."

"So where are you on the board?" I asked.

Mello instantly scowled, "Number two," he spat out reluctantly.

"That's amazing," I complimented him, truly impressed.

"Not amazing enough. It doesn't matter where I am unless I'm at number one," Mello said darkly.

I didn't reply, since it seemed to be a touchy subject and instead began to approach the noticeboard where several students were already stood.

A single A4 sheet of white paper was the main focal point of the board which simply listed the names of students. I began to read through and was immediately astounded.

' 1. Near  
2. Mello  
3. Matt '

Number three. Out of so many little genii, I ranked as number three.

"Congratulations on making third," A small white-haired boy said from beside me.

"Thank you," I answered.

"I ought to introduce myself. I am Near."

"Yes, our dearest Near. First. Top of the leaderboard," Mello mocked him.

Near ignored him and continued to speak to me, "I found it highly improbable that you would make third. I did not anticipate that you were the truly intellectual type, having judged from your unkempt and laid-back appearance. No matter. Congratulations again."

With that, Near left the room. I had noted that Mello seemed to strongly dislike the boy and I had already decided that I wanted Mello for a friend. I knew what I had to say.

"Well, he was obnoxious," I announced casually, as if I had no idea the effect my words would have.

"Thank you! A lot of people here just don't see that. He thinks he's so superior to everyone," Mello exclaimed.

"Yeah, he seems the type," I smiled.

"Anyway, well done on third-place," Mello said.

"Thanks. Don't worry, I have no interest in trying to get any higher," I settled the worries that he hadn't expressed.

"Good," Mello said simply.

"Do they sell food now?" I asked Mello hopefully.

"Nope. Sorry, break is almost over. They'll have shut the Dinner Hall," He replied.

My stomach growled, as if on cue, and I whined softly.

Mello smiled and reached into his bag. He pulled out a chocolate bar and handed it to me.

"Thank you!" I exclaimed, happily tearing into the chocolate.

"Yeah, just never say that I'm not nice. Not just anyone gets my chocolate off of me, you know."

"I'm honoured," I grinned and Mello smiled back, rolling his eyes.

"Come on, it's time for class," Mello pulled his bag up onto his shoulder and I followed him out of the lounge to Biology.

* * *

The teacher was nice enough, the lesson was easy blah, blah, blah. Who really cares about that? It was boring and I spent most of the class focusing on the Gameboy that I played beneath the desk.

"Could you at least try to _pretend_ that you give a damn about this?" Mello hissed.

"Come on, we both know that genetics is childs play. No reason to do this when I already know it. And I'll bet that you do as well," I retorted, not pausing my game for a second.

"Yes, we already know it, but that doesn't mean that we can't go over it. In order to actually remember and understand it," Mello glared.

"That sounds tedious. I'd rather play," I grinned, although I knew that my words would annoy Mello.

As expected, the blonde let out a frustrated sigh and turned his back on me again. I only began to worry when the lesson finished and he remained stony-faced, not saying a word to me.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Fine," Mello answered stiffly.

"What's wrong?" I persisted.

"You. You infuriate me."

"Me? Why? What did I do?"

"You have it so easy. You're third on the leaderboard and you aren't even trying. I bet that if you actually tried, you would beat me _and_ Near," Mello now appeared more like a child having a temper-tantrum which was far less threatening than when he wouldn't speak.

"Then shouldn't you be glad that I don't try and never will?" I pointed out.

He seemed to consider this for a moment before smiling widely, "Come on, let's go before we're late."

I grinned triumphantly but obediently strode alongside Mello to the next lesson.

* * *

**A.N. Thank you to anyone who put this in their favourites, on alert and especially to those who reviewed. I really appreciate it. =)**


	4. Chapter Three

I'm Still Here

Chapter Three

Two days later, I had my first (terrifying) experience of stressed exam-time Mello. Whilst he had been completely focused in lessons and seemed to take his education very seriously, I never guessed that he would become so intense about studying. So I had no idea when I went to the Dinner Hall in the evening that Mello would not be showing up. Had I known, I probably would have avoided it completely.

This might make me a bit odd, but personally, I hate eating alone. I don't know what it is exactly, but it just seems awkward. So, despite how antisocial I am, I was actually slightly relieved when somebody sat down at my table.

"Hello. You're Matt, correct?" A quiet voice said. I looked up to see a girl, who was roughly my own age, sitting across from me. Her beige-blonde hair was tied back in a loose ponytail and she had large glasses pushed far back upon her freckled nose.

"Hi. Yeah, I'm Matt. And you are?" I asked.

"I'm Quinn. I just wished to welcome you to Wammy's," She introduced herself.

"Thank you," I smiled at the first student to welcome me despite my having been there for several days now.

"I noticed that you achieved third on the leaderboard. Congratulations. That's impressive," Quinn spoke matter-of-factly and pushed on the bridge of her glasses even though they weren't edging their way down her face in the slightest.

"Thank you again. What's your position on the board?" I asked.

"Fifth," Quinn answered.

"Nice. So what's that you're reading?" I gestured to the small, battered paperback book that Quinn was clutching to her chest.

"Emma by Jane Austen. Do you know it?" Quinn perked up suddenly.

"No, I haven't really read much," I admitted nervously.

"That's alright. It's a great book though," Quinn began to launch into a basic outline of the plot and although I wasn't that interested, I actively listened, smiling and nodding in all the right places while I ate.

Suddenly, two girls popped up behind Quinn.

"God, Quinn. You aren't boring the poor boy with book talk are you?" A girl with caramel coloured hair said, rolling her eyes.

Quinn blushed and ducked her head, "Sorry. I was rambling."

"No! That's okay. It sounded interesting," I quickly said.

"You're just being polite. That's kind of you though," the second girl laughed, "I'm Dawn by the way. You must be Matt. And this is Linda." Dawn gestured to the girl who had made spoken first.

"Yeah, that's me. Nice to meet you both," I said as Linda and Dawn took a seat on either side of Quinn.

"Nice goggles," Linda complimented me.

I narrowed my eyes, checking to see if she was making fun of me or not. It appeared that she was being genuine so I slowly replied, "Thank you."

"They must put an interesting tinge of colour on everything," Linda mused, more to herself than anyone else.

"Yes, they do. I like it," I answered.

Somebody threw themself down in the seat beside me, "You've got to be kidding me, dude. You've been here for all of three days and you're already chatting up these lovely ladies."

I turned to see a boy sitting next to me this time.

"I'm Alex by the way," Alex grinned, flattening his black hair with one hand.

"I'm Matt," I said nervously. I was not used to having so many people around me and whilst they were perfectly nice, I was not enjoying it.

"Yeah, I know," Alex laughed, "Everyone does. I mean, there's a certain kind of status that comes from instantly taking third place on the leaderboard."

I smiled, hoping that it didn't look forced, "Thanks. Well, I've got to go find my roommate now..."

"Who's your roommate?" Dawn asked.

"Mello," I said and she exchanged a look with Linda.

"You're sharing a room with Mello? And getting on with him?" Dawn said skeptically as she tied her mahogany hair into a ponytail.

"Erm... Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but Mello's kinda... standoffish," Alex hesitated.

"He seems fine to me," I said, feeling defensive.

"Yeah, don't get us wrong," Dawn rushed to say, "He seems like a nice guy under the surface and everything, he just never really gets close to anyone. It's cool that you guys are friends though."

"Okay. Well I'm gonna go back to the room. Bye," I hurried away from the chorus of 'goodbye's quite quickly and breathed a sigh of relief when I was finally alone.

* * *

I didn't really mind them saying those things about Mello. They weren't insulting him or anything, but it was true what they said and I had noticed in the past few days that he appeared to keep people at a distance. You could tell from the way he walked as he seemed so sure of himself, the way he sat away from anybody and everybody, the way he glared at anybody who dared approach him.

I threw open the door of the room I shared with Mello and, as expected, he was inside. He didn't even look up as I entered the room and went to stand next to where he sat at the desk. Textbooks were stacked high around him and he had one open on the desk from which he was revising, writing furiously in a notebook.

"I didn't see you at dinner," I said.

"Wasn't hungry," Mello answered shortly, not pausing for a moment in his working.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing, genius?"

"It looks like you're stressing yourself out."

"I'm fine. Don't fuss."

"The exam is tomorrow. You might as well calm down. You must have memorised those books by now."

Mello had been studying as much as he could over the past few days and it wasn't particularly pleasant. When revising, he barely spoke to me and he didn't seem happy.

"I can't calm down! If I calm down and stop working, Near will beat me _again_!" Mello shouted, throwing down his pen and turning to face me with a furious glare.

"You'll be fine. You just need to relax," I suggested, trying to soothe him slightly.

"That's easy for you to say, isn't it? You don't need to study to get a good position. Well just because everything is so simple for you doesn't mean it is for me!" Mello yelled.

"And just because you're stressing yourself out and getting pissy doesn't mean that you can take it out on me!" I shouted back.

"I can do whatever the fuck I want!" Mello gathered his books up in his arms and stormed out of the room, slamming the door so hard on the way out that I thought it would break.

I had never seen Mello so angry before. Of course, looking back on that day, I now think about Mello's mood as having been entirely normal and actually quite mild considering that it was the day before an exam. On one occasion, he threw a chair at me, but that's a different story.

I jumped onto my bed and whipped out my trusty GameBoy. I threw myself into my games, forgetting everything except for my little cyber world.

* * *

Eventually, my character died and I launched into a torrent of curse words. I stood up and in my temper tantrum, I kicked the bedside table. This did nothing but injure my foot and I swore even louder before bending down to collect up the items that had fallen off of the table in the process.

I picked up the alarm clock and looked at it. 10pm. Mello still wasn't back. I groaned to myself. He was probably sulking over textbooks in the library. I sighed and dawdled to the door, knowing exactly what I had to do, no matter how much I didn't want to.

I hurried down the main stairs and made a beeline for the Dinner Hall. Of course, for the sole purpose of irritating me, the doors decided to be locked at that moment so I went around the back of the building to the area that I assumed was the Dinner Hall.

I looked into the windows in the kitchens. The windows were locked by a small catch that had to be pushed all the way across and forced down firmly in order to work properly. Perfect. I eventually found a window that hadn't been pushed down enough. I scraped at the bottom of the window with my fingernails, loosening it until I could use my hands to pull. The catch made its way up the notch it was stuck on with each tug and eventually I had it at the top. One last pull and it would be free.

I pushed the tips of my fingers under the frame and gave one sharp tug. Abruptly, the window swung open. I hadn't been expecting such a sudden action and it hit me in the face. My nose ached and when I raised my hand up to touch it, I noticed blood. I swore and held my sleeve up to my nose. I squeezed through the window and finally into the kitchen after all of that effort. I looked around in the cupboards for a while until I found it. Chocolate. And not just any chocolate, milk cooking chocolate which is about a hundred times richer than any other kind of chocolate. The idea of such rich chocolate made my stomach turn, but it didn't matter. This was for Mello after all.

I grabbed a couple of bars of chocolate and quickly made my way back out of the window. I pushed it up as much as I could but I obviously couldn't lock it from the outside. I decided to just leave it, hoping that they would assume that it had come undone in the night.

I sprinted up to the library, having wasted twenty minutes on breaking into the kitchens. I still had to hold my sleeve up to dab my bloody nose as I moved straight to Mello's usual desk in the library. As expected, there sat Mello with a scowl on his face, a book on the desk and a pen in his hand.

I approached him slowly and I noticed that he stiffened up as I sat down across from him.

"I'm sorry," I said as genuinely as I could.

"You have some of my attention for all of one minute," Mello snapped, not bothering to stop writing and at least pretend to listen.

"I'm sorry for interrupting and belittling your studying. It was wrong of me," I hoped that I wouldn't have to say anything else as I slid a bar of chocolate across the table, just into his view.

Mello shot up immediately and put down his pen.

"Cooking chocolate? I forgive you! How did you get this?" Mello smiled as he tore open the silver wrapping and bit off a chunk.

"Easily," I lied, grinning.

Mello looked up at me and looked shocked, "What the hell happened to your face?"

I suddenly remembered about the bleeding and moved my sleeve up to my nose again. I dabbed at the blood and shrugged at Mello, "I got into a fight... With a window."

Mello looked at me incredulously.

"Yeah, don't ask," I said sheepishly.

Mello suddenly burst out laughing, eventually rolling his eyes and taking another bite of chocolate, "Yeah that's probably best. Only you could manage that."

"So now that you've forgiven me, will you come back to the room?" I grinned.

"Yeah, I suppose," Mello said, gathering books in his arms before stopping abruptly, "Hold on a second, I very kindly accepted your apology. You should be the one carrying the books!" He thrust an armful of books into my arms, striding his way past me and my startled expression and out of the library.

**A.N. I just thought I'd take this opportunity to say that the OCs won't have a big part in this story. I'm not planning on making a big deal out of the OCs (Quinn, Dawn and Alex) but we aren't really told about many actual characters from Wammy's so it was kind of necessary to create other students and I didn't just want to randomly throw them in later on in the story when I might need them. So, yeah, I don't know if you like/dislike OCs but either way, you don't have to worry that I'll make them main characters, 'cause I won't.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! The next one is almost ready for publishing. Please let me know what you thought. Reviews are to me as cooking chocolate is to Mello. =)**


	5. Chapter Four

I'm Still Here

Chapter Four

Bored. Bored. Bored. My hand is starting to hurt from writer's cramp and I want to be playing my GameBoy. I haven't written this much in ages and I'm _bored_. Where the fuck is Mello with the batteries? He offered to go get them _ages_ ago and yet here I am, _still waiting_. Ugh, fine. Whatever. I have nothing better to do so I'll keep writing. Consider yourself honoured, my _dearest_ journal.

The next day, I learned a very valuable lesson about surviving in a room with Mello. On the morning of an exam - set your own alarm. I hadn't even considered this the night before and as a result, I suffered greatly. The first thing I remember from that morning was a sharp pain as something heavy hit my body with quite a lot of force behind it. My eyes opened and blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light shining through my orange goggles.

Another clunky object impacted upon my back and I shot up, narrowly missing another item that would have hit me in the face. I looked down at the offending item and squinted at the front cover. A Biology textbook. That could only mean one thing. I sighed and looked over to Mello's bed. He was perched on the side of it closest to me, using his left hand to hold open the book he was reading from and his right hand to throw another thick textbook at me. It hit me square in the chest and I let out a yelp.

"I'm up, you prat!" I yelled.

"Took you long enough, lazy shit," Mello scowled.

"Was this really necessary?" I asked, throwing back my covers and in the process dumping four textbooks on the floor. I climbed out of bed and headed for my chest of drawers.

"Necessary, no. Effective, yes," Mello responded, still not bothering to look up from the book, "You have twenty minutes to be ready."

I glared at Mello's book-concealed face and entered the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

* * *

I yawned loudly and stretched out in my chair, looking around me. The exam had only been going on for ten minutes but I was bored. I was by no means finished with my test paper yet, but I was having trouble focusing. My hands twitched to get my GameBoy out but I couldn't. Getting any electronics out would make them think that I was cheating. Besides, I did want to get a good spot on the leader board. Just because it made me feel kind of impressive and I liked that. I didn't want to be first. I didn't even need to be third. Just as long as I wasn't lower than fifteenth, I would be happy.

I glanced over in Mello's direction. He was writing very quickly and would glance to his left every so often. At the desk across the aisle from him was Near, writing equally fast but obviously feeling no need to look over at Mello. Some kind of competition over who could finish first, I guessed.

Near had seemed relatively harmless but greatly lacking social skills, however there was just something I didn't like about him. How he made Mello so insecure but was extremely sure of himself.

I continued to work through the test, doing the exact opposite to Near and Mello. I wrote answers in slowly and groggily. Twenty or so minutes later, a loud bang could be heard. Along with every other person in the hall I looked up, startled, to see Mello's hand still placed over the closed exam paper from where he had slammed it shut. Near remained emotionless although Mello had just beaten him and finished several moments later, calmly shutting the paper and pushing it away. Mello smirked and sat back in his seat arrogantly as everybody returned to their work. They seemed to be used to this happening.

I shook my head and went back to my own test.

* * *

"That was boring," I commented to Mello as we headed for the Lounge after the test.

Mello rolled his eyes, "It wasn't that boring. You're just a lazy arse who can't be bothered to make an effort."

I considered this for a moment, "Fair comment. That could be it."

We entered the Lounge and settled down at a desk. Mello pulled out a notebook and a bar of chocolate.

"Are you kidding me?" I exclaimed, "We _just_ finished a test and you're already working again?"

"I'm just finishing some homework. Hysterical much?" Mello raised his eyebrows and broke the unwrapped chocolate with his teeth.

"Hello Mello," Near said, approaching our desk, "I wish you the best of luck with the exam results."

"You arrogant little shit!" Mello shouted, "You're just trying to take a shot at me and I don't want to hear it!"

"I meant to do no such thing, Mello. I am simply aware of how hard you tried with the examination and I wish you luck, although it is likely that you will remain in second place."

"I could beat you, you know! I don't need to try hard! I could be first!" Mello was red-faced with anger and his fists were clenched at his sides as though he was trying very hard not to hit Near.

"We shall see," Near said before walking away.

"That smug, up-himself _bastard_. He was obviously trying to insult me," Mello seethed.

"Yeah. What a dick head," I commented, and this time I meant it.

Mello turned to me and forced a smile in a way that scared me a little, "I'm glad you think so, Matt. 'Cause we've got some revenge to take care of."

"What kind of revenge?" I asked, intrigued.

Mello grinned evilly," Let's just say that we're going to need some boiled sweets and a hammer."

That was not the last time that I would see Mello's evil smile or listen to his plotting. This was just the first of many, _many_ similar missions. What can I say? Mello and I weren't exactly the best students at Wammy's in terms of behaviour. Particularly for Near. Poor kid was on the receiving end of a _lot_ of pranking. He made it easy to hate him enough to do these things. He'd never directly done anything to Mello or myself, but seeing the way that he treated Mello and the way that his victories caused Mello pain, I was more than happy to participate.

* * *

After dinner that evening, Mello and I put our plan into action. From the Dinner Hall, we went straight through the door at the back into the kitchens.

"Hi Mrs. McKenna!" Mello exclaimed as we entered the kitchen, smiling in an innocent and completely un-Mello-ish way.

"Hello, dear," Mrs. McKenna, the main chef at Wammy's, greeted Mello warmly.

"This is Matt. He's new," Mello introduced me and I smiled shyly, keeping my mouth shut, just as I had been instructed. He crossed the room to stand in front of the refrigerator and began to speak again. Mrs. McKenna turned to face Mello while he rambled about his chocolate allowance and, with this distraction, she didn't notice me creeping behind her.

Soundlessly, I opened the third cupboard from the left wall and there in front of me, as Mello said they would be, were bags of hard candy.

I slid a bag into Mello's bag that he had handed me before entering and shut the cupboard again. I gave Mello the thumbs up and he began to cross the room to me again. I leant against the wall and smiled as though I hadn't moved from my initial position in the room. Mrs. McKenna said goodbye to us both and sent us on our way after giving us a cookie each.

"That was easy," I devoured my cookie with a smile.

"I told you it would be. Now to ransack the tool shed," Mello said. He led me to the back garden and we found a hammer, a screwdriver and a nine inch adjustable wrench which was perfect for our task.

"Okay. First thing's first," Mello rolled up his black sleeves and grasped the hammer.

I nodded and tore open the bag of candies, lining them up on the workbench before standing very far back. Mello with a hammer was a terrifying idea. He drew back the tool and slammed it down hard on top of the colourful candies. He continued to pound them with the heavy metal, looking much too happy to be thinking about boiled sweets. It was more likely that he was picturing Near's face being broken to pieces on the workbench.

Nevertheless, the job got done and the finished product was crushed up candy. I carefully removed the hammer from Mello's hands before approaching the bench. I swept the boiled sweet remnants back into their wrapping and we left the shed, wrench and screwdriver still in hand.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now, we wait," Mello replied and we ran back up to our room.

* * *

At 5 o'clock in the morning, the alarm went off. As per usual, Mello shot straight up and out of bed, silencing the beeping with a swift movement. He crossed to my bed and shook me gently, whispering "Matt," in my ear. I pretended to still be asleep for a few moments because it was kind of nice to experience Mello being gentle for once.

However, it had to end sometime and it was over all too quickly. I faked waking up and as I opened my eyes, I was greeted with an eye roll from Mello and the hissed words, "Take your time, why don't you."

I merely smiled in return and for the first time in my life, I was happy to get up. I was very much looking forward to this. Mello insisted that I wore all black since we were on a mission and wanted to be stealthy. I rolled my eyes at his apparent childish desire to play ninja but humoured him anyway.

We didn't need to get up any earlier, because it was apparently well known that Near awoke at 7 o'clock every day. We had two hours to kill. There was no need to get up in the middle of the night. It was still dark outside though, since it was England in November.

"Aren't you going to take your goggles off? It must be impossible to see in the dark with those," Mello pointed out.

"No. I'm fine," I answered shortly. He was right, it was quite difficult to see now but my goggles don't come off. Ever. A fact that is still true to this day apart from a few exceptions that I have had to make over the years.

Mello shrugged, picked up a handful of the thoroughly hammered candy, the wrench and the screwdriver and left the room, shortly followed by me.

We crept down the hallway to door number six and Mello passed me the screwdriver. I began to carefully undo the screws around the handle. Once that had been removed, a small metal bar was visible inside the door, connecting to the thumb turn lock on the other side. I stuck the screwdriver onto the bar and forced it backwards, before quickly screwing the handle back on. I twisted the metal knob slightly and the door opened.

I passed Mello the screwdriver again with a flash of a smile and slipped into the room, ducking down and crawling as a precaution. Mello was following me this time as I crawled into the bathroom. We shut the door tightly and crowded towels around the slit at the bottom so that the light could not be seen from the main bedroom. So far so good though. Near was still sound asleep.

Mello handed me the hard candy and began to attack the shower head with the wrench. He undid it from the pipe quickly and then held his hand out for some of the candy. I only passed the lightly coloured ones like lemon and orange so that they wouldn't colour the water. Mello crammed the crushed candy into the top of the shower head and replaced it back onto the pipe.

This was Mello's idea for a prank and I was throughly impressed by it. The candy in the pipe would make it impossible for Near to shower. It didn't clog up the water. No, nothing as simple as that. It mixed in with the water as it flowed through the shower head. He would be showering like normal and everything would be fine until he got out. As he dried himself off, he would notice that he was very sticky for some reason. This is the effect given because it's basically the same as washing him with sugar.

As soon as Mello and I were out of Near's room, we doubled over with silent laughter.

"This is fantastic. I just wish I could see his face when it happens," Mello whispered.

"I know That was excellent," I whispered.

"Yeah, but it _was_ my idea," Mello reminded me.

"So?"

"So nothing. It just seems worth mentioning."

It wasn't surprising that Mello had mentioned this. He always wanted recognition for his good work.

"I could do something too, you know!" I said defensively.

"Yeah, like what?" Mello snorted. "Sorry Matt, I just think you're a bit too much of a computer geek to have the devious mindset."

"Challenge accepted," I said decisively, opening Near's door again and crawling over to the desk. He was still silently sleeping with no idea what was happening around him. I grabbed his laptop off of the desk and departed from the room again.

"What are you doing? Stealing it? That's not very creative," Mello guessed.

I shushed him and opened the laptop carefully. This was my area of expertise after all. The system started up and launched onto a page asking for a password. I typed out common combinations rapidly but to no avail. I thought for a minute, determined for my plan to work and prove Mello wrong.

I didn't know Near well enough to guess something based on his interests. However, thinking about it, Near seemed emotionless. His personality didn't show through plain white clothes and I doubted that his password would reflect his personality either. He was logical though. He would just want the security of a password. I smiled and typed in "S3cUr1ty" after failing with several attempts that had a similar theme. As expected, I was let into the User Area.

I opened the Start menu and right clicked on the Internet Explorer Icon. I selected "Properties" and changed the target to "%windir%\system32\ -r -t 00". This would mean that every time Near clicked on Internet, the computer would mysteriously restart.

I then opened My Computer and went into Windows and then Startup. I typed a word document that read "Arrogant little shit" and copied it into the Startup folder. This meant that every time he started up his laptop, he would be greeted by that charming little message.

Finally, more for amusement than any true effect it would have, I started up Microsoft Word and entered the word "Near" to be autocorrected with the word "Dickhead".

I quickly replaced the laptop on Near's desk and exited the room for the final time that day.

"What did you do?" Mello asked, confused.

I explained it to him, trying to make my actions sound more complex than the simple irritations they were. I finished with, "So clearly, me being a computer geek worked well here, didn't it?"

Mello grinned, "Computer tricks, huh? That's kind of cool. Okay, your mind is devious enough. I hereby announce you my partner in crime."

Mello held out his hand and I shook it, laughing. He then turned and ran back to our room, dragging me along behind him with my hand still clutched in his.

* * *

**A.N. The shower head trick does actually work. =) The site I got it from is American so they suggested using Lifesavers or Jolly Rancher candies but since Wammy's is in England where those brands aren't really sold, I didn't specify a brand.**

**The little computer tricks all work as well. They're kinda feeble, but they're only nine so I didn't make it too complicated.**

**Hope you enjoyed it! Please review! =)**


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